Next Up at City Council, September 5 – 6, 2007

Yikes, that’s tomorrow! If I had to function as a single parent all the time, instead of just occasionally when Steve’s away, I would not have time to write this blog.

The most compelling items on this week’s Portland City Council Agenda are the Time Certains on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons:

1084 TIME CERTAIN: 2:00 PM – Adopt the update of Transportation System Development Charge rate study, establish an updated fee schedule effective January 1, 2008 (Ordinance introduced by Commissioner Adams; amend Code Chapter 17.15)

1085 TIME CERTAIN: 3:30 PM – Amend contract with The Latino Network and provide for payment of an additional $72,310 for the continued development and implementation of the Diversity and Civic Leadership Academy for the period July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008 (Ordinance introduced by Mayor Potter; amend Contract No. 37318)

1086 TIME CERTAIN: 2:00 PM – Declare intent to provide City funding to construct the Portland Streetcar Loop Extension Project and to partner with the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon to provide for funding of operations (Resolution introduced by Commissioner Adams)

1087 Create a local improvement district to construct streetcar improvements in the Portland Streetcar Loop Extension Local Improvement District (Second Reading Agenda 983; introduced by Commissioner Adams; C-10025).

1088 TIME CERTAIN: 3:00 PM – Initiate a period of public comment on the proposal to change the name of Interstate Avenue to César E. Chávez Boulevard (Resolution introduced by Mayor Potter, Commissioners Adams, Leonard, Saltzman and Sten).

I posted about the Diversity & Leadership grant here; the Streetcar funding here; and we had a good discussion on renaming Interstate here. That leaves changes to Transportation Systems Development Charges (SDCs) which Frank Dufay covered for us here, during the public meetings before tomorrow’s hearing on the proposal. From the Newsletter (pdf) sent to inform about the proposal:

“Specifically, the Council will consider these Citizen Advisory Committee – endorsed TSDC program changes during the public hearing:

• Phase out an existing Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) discount over four years.

• Apply the principles of geographic equity – make sure projects are spread throughout the City – when determining a list of TSDC-qualified improvement projects, while also supporting projects that have identified leverage and/or are regional in nature.

• Keep TSDC rates charged to new development comparable to current 2007 rates, recognizing that the phase-out of the TOD discount will generate additional TSDC revenue. The proposed fee schedule can be viewed on the project’s Web site.”

There is also a proposed list of projects the Council is being asked to approve. Getting your neighborhood improvement on the SDC project list is one of the key ways of seeing it done (eventually).

While looking for information about the proposed changes in SDCs citywide, I found this map (pdf) of projects for a “Proposed South Waterfront SDC Overlay”. I don’t know whether this proposed overlay results in South Waterfront developers paying more or less than others citywide. I haven’t forgotten about my series “Who’s paying what for …. in South Waterfront”, I simply haven’t been able to find out the information. So, if anyone knows about the Transportation SDCs in South Waterfront and how they differ from the rest of the city, please post in the comments or e-mail me.

Check the rest of the Wednesday morning agenda for yourselves – I may have missed something from an overload of multitasking here Chez Steve & Amanda. My favorite from the morning list:

*1048 Authorize a price agreement for polymer flocculant for the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant

Flocculant. What a great word. And the price of flocculant is being approved by Council as an emergency ordinance, as indicated by the asterisk. Emergency flocculant.